Saturday, March 13, 2010

Common Topics

I've checked Google's analysis of this blog again. I notice the popularity of some articles. And sometimes I'm totally confused. The Forbidden Experimentbaby experiment, language spoken, 1 searchresults of a forbidden experiment, 1 searchthe forbidden experiment, 1 searchIn medieval times, it was commonly thought that humankind had one original language, and that if children were raised without ever hearing speech, that they would therefore speak this language. Furious debates emerged about if this would be Latin, Greek, Hebrew, or Egyptian, all languages with a religion-based significance and high prestige to medieval people. The experiment was run from children taken from orphanages to finally settle the argument once and for all.To everyone's surprise, none of these languages were spoken. Instead, children raised in the absence of speech learned no language at all, and grew up massively intellectually crippled, when they survived at all. The experiment is now "forbidden" on the grounds that it is hideously evil, but is sometimes accidentally re-run when a child is abandoned in the wild (sometimes due to the abrupt death of their parents, sometimes because their parents evilly abandon them there). See feral children for more information about this. Jungle Gymsjungle gym structure, 1 searcharchitecture based on jungle gym, 1 searchA "Jungle Gym" is a playground structure consisting of many metal bars arranged in a pattern. Children exercise by climbing it, swinging across the bars, and so on. The metal parts are typically attached by welding, the entire structure is embedded in cement on the site, and a rubber mat is cut and laid across the ground to minimize falling injuries.I once proposed a very very large one. Genetic AlgorithmsGenetic Algorithm music, 1 searchGenetic Algorithm number theory, 1 searchGenetic Algorithms are a use in Computer Science for the biological principles of evolution, to produce a data structure that has traits you're certain of, but the fine details you are not. It works by having a pool of structures, eliminating the ones least like the goal structure, combining the ones most like the goal structure to refill the pool, and giving a few some random alterations, and repeating until the goal structure emerges. The program thus "evolves" like biological life does, reaching the goal in small incremental steps. (The "goal" of biological life is to "survive and multiply under the currently prevailing conditions.") Genetic algorithms are useless if one does not have a fitness criteria to explain which structures are better adapted. Biological life's criteria is "the ability to survive and reproduce under the current circumstances."A genetic algorithm for music would require listening to quite a lot of bad music before it would ever produce good music. Unless you could mathematically define what good music would be.I'm not entirely sure how it would be applied to number theory.have some recurring searches. Materialism vs. IdealismMaterialism vs. Idealism, 6 searchesMaterialist vs. idealist, 4 searchesmaterialism vs, 2 searchesMaterialism and idealism are philosophical positions about the nature of the universe. Materialism says that only things that have mass, and in theory can be touched, are real. So the sun, Mars, your computer, the grass, are all real because they can be touched, and things like ghosts and spirits are not real because they cannot be touched. Idealism says that the physical world is unreal, it is ideas that are real. In idealist situations, the world you know may very well be imagined by you and have no reality whatsoever.Emotional ComputingEmotional computing, 8 searchesPeople and animals have emotions about things. This helped animals to survive, by running from threats, taking pleasure in things that helped them survive, fighting irritations in rage, and so on. Machines like computers do not have emotions, but can be programmed to anticipate the emotional state of the user. With this information, it can adapt to be more helpful, like noting a confused or frustrated state and observing that maybe it needs to offer an easier interface, if available.Algae and Foodhow to grow edible algae, 1 searchgrow edible algae, 1 searchThere's some 18 species of algae that you can eat, and that readily grow in certain types of water. A helpful note if we ever run out of farmland.Mispelled Thingsa pole of how many people would want domotics, 1 searchmaterialist, 1 searchmateralist, 1 searchmad engginering, 1 searchA pole is a long cylinder, this guy wanted a "poll." Everyone could use domotics, but for many, it's not worth the effort. It's of most interest to engineers, who like the challenge, the physically disabled, who can accomplish more that way, and the very busy, who get more spare time from it. Materialism's root word is "material." Physical stuff.Engineering has two "g"s, not three.Pyschologydeformation professionalle, 1 searchcognitive dissonance global warming denialism, 1 searchnegative opinions of exploited cognitive dissonance, 1 search"Deformation Professionalle" is seeing the world with a bias due to your profession. It's a pun in French from "Formation Professionalle," with translates to "Professional Training."Cognitive dissonance is the uncomfortable feeling one gets when one realizes that two ideas of yours conflict, and therefore one must be discarded as wrong. It's speculated to fuel denial of climate change with the following chain of thought: "Economic activity is always good. Economic activity produces carbon dioxide. Climate change theory says that carbon dioxide is harmful. The only way to reduce carbon dioxide is via reduced carbon dioxide, or tax-paid sequestering, either of which would slow economic activity. This would mean some economic activity is not good. Since all economic activity is good, therefore climate change must be incorrect." (See how the two ideas conflicted, so one was discarded?)As for people not liking to be manipulated, no, they don't. Yes, they probably would be annoyed if you intentionally gave them cognitive dissonance.Bizarre Nanoscale Ideasgender altering nanites transgender fiction, 1 searchnanite gender change, 1 searchNanobots, or "nanites" as common sci-fi has taken to calling them, are nanometer-scale mechanical devices, small enough to manipulate individual atoms. Very crude ones have recently been invented, but when this technology matures, it would revolutionize manufacturing, medicine, and engineering forever, because it could very cheaply manipulate materials and gather energy from all kinds of cheap sources. The field is slowed in progress by the fact that at this small scale, the rules are totally different. Large engines need lubrication from motor oil to continue to run, but this would only terminally clog a motor on this scale.The medical uses revolve around the fact that they could completely redesign your body, power themselves on your excess blood sugar, which you could recover by just eating more. They could close any open wounds, repair any of your failing organs, re-engineer your bones to multiple times their original strength, give you superhuman musculature without exercise, arbitrarily change almost any trait imaginable, and help you survive in the most hostile environments available. If you wanted to reshape yourself into a giant bird with hydrogen filled bones, they could do it....but the internet being what it is, there's more interest for some reason in recreating Rumiko Takahashi's famous transformation tale. Why?Things my blog mentioned and I'm not sure why people followedSchlock Mercenary, 1 searchwater system engineer webcomic, 1 searchxkcd mad engineering, 1 search how to drive for maximum mileage, 1 search human survival in space webcomic, 1 searchquantum vector collector..., 2 searchesSchlock Mercenary is Howard Taylor's tale of a company in the deep future, the overly complicated machine is from Andy Weir's Casey and Andy, the only comic I know with water system engineering is Angela Melnick's Wasted Talent, and XKCD is Randall Monroe's stick-figure bits of math and science ideas. I'm not sure if by "human survival in space" they meant inside a space ship (likely, see Schlock) or outside one (manifestly impossible).As for driving for maximum gas milage, accelerate slowly, coast as often as possible, slow down if a stop is threatening, and brake slowly ahead of time. Avoid braking if possible. Things that I have no idea what the hellmeat barge, 1 searchbrownian engine gas, 1 searchfictional things to do on venus, 1 searchfusion 1911 slab longside, 1 searchgoogle famous composers 1400-1800 classical music, 2 searchesconclusion in prevention of global warming, 1 searchIs a meat barge a small ship that carries meat, in which case a train or a plane would probably bring it to market faster, or a small ship made of meat, which is as crazy as it is stupid?Is a brownian gas engine one that uses the brownian motion in a gas, like air? Or did they mean from gasoline?Fictionally on Venus, one could hypothetically do anything you could on Earth. Practically, though, you'd want to cool it and reduce its atmosphere to a level that didn't instantly crush you.As for famous composers, I'm aware of: Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven. Probably many more that I'm not aware of.As for the fusion slab, I just can't make any sense of that at all.And the global warming guy, he wants a conclusion? A conclusion to prevent? I don't see how these two words fit together.

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